Why is my 350 so hard to start?

[Pete]

When I try to start when the engine is cold, I have to kick a lot. The last time it took 83 kicks! It was over 60 kicks before it would even fire. If I start with a warm engine, one kick is all it takes. It runs great once it starts. My bike is a 350 with the Mototrans electronic ignition and an Amal 930 carb. There is no choke, but it does have a tickler. I am not sure if it works as nothing comes out the weep hole when you press it down. Is there some way to check?

[JimF]

The tickler on my Dell'Orto simply pushes down on the float in the float bowl which opens the gravity feed from the fuel line. Fuel pours in until the whole bowl is full and fuel begins to run out.

At that point owing to the position of the bowl with respect to the carb there will also appear a puddle of gas at the mouth of the carb.

The idea then is that carb inhales the un-atomized gas and starts easier owing to the un-metered amount of liquid fuel in the cylinder. That's mu understanding anyway.

Does it idle high? Your carb slide could be up too high when the throttle cable is at rest, thus the carb is inhaling too much air at kick-over. Your carb would be at rest out of the range of its idle circuit. A tell-tale sign of this would be a hight idle.

You might want to go back and check the timing again too.

But yes, if you don't have any evidence of a boat-load of fuel at the carb mouth after sufficient tickling of the carb it might be worth your while to pop open the float bowl and look at the float valve and the actuation of the tickler.

Jim

[DewCatTea-Bob]

" When I try to start when the engine is cold, I have to kick a lot.
My bike is a 350 with the Mototrans electronic ignition and an Amal 930 carb. "

____ This is a fairly common issue with this particular model !
It seems to be a combination of the carb & ignition, stock on this particular model.
The proper spark-plug gap can't be left ignored, as it does seem to matter more so than with the points-ign models.


" There is no choke, but it does have a tickler. I am not sure if it works as nothing comes out the weep hole when you press it down. "

__ After turning-on the gas-petcocks (after the motor has sat long enough to be stone-cold), then (without the choke-slide closed), press the tickler down fully, while the fuel-tank's cap is unsealed, and if you don't see any slight spurt-line of fuel expel soon there-after, then something is quite wrong !
Otherwise, at this point, the engine should be ready to kick-start, and if all else is as it should be, then it should start with 1 to 3 full kick-throughs, (even when cold) !
If not, it's likely your idle-circuit is not properly adjusted and/or your throttle-cable is not allowing the Amal's throttle-slide to close-down enough so that too much air does not enter the idle-mix... Make sure then that turning the handle-bars fully in either direction does not at all move the slide, and if it does, then either keep your wheel turned in the direction which allows the slide to be lowest, or adjust the cable looser.
__ When the plug-gap & stock carb are both correctly adjusted, cold-starting is not much harder than when heated. _ Just make sure to not over-tickle more than once.
Next time the motor is fully warmed-up & running, then wind-out 1st or 2nd gear, and then suddenly shut-down the throttle fully-off/completely,, and if you then hear any popping-sounds at all from the exhaust, then you'll know that your Amal's idle-circuit is set too lean ! _ If found so, then adjust the air-mix screw until all such popping has stopped, which will then help cold-starting.
__ You could consider replacing the Amal with a square-slide type Dellorto, as they're better at aiding the starting process !
____ Please let us know how things turn-out for you with this issue !


Hopeful-Cheers,
-Bob